ROC outraged by authorities' interference in the affairs of Latvian Church

On September 5, 2022, the Moscow Patriarchate expressed indignation at the intention of Latvia's secular authorities to interfere in the affairs of the Latvian Orthodox Church, reports “Interfax”.

Archpriest Nikolai Balashov, Advisor to the Patriarch, recalled that autonomy over all internal government matters was granted to the Latvian Church in 1921 and was reaffirmed by the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1990.

The ROC representative called the actions of the Latvian authorities "a blatant violation of the principle of non-interference by secular political power in the Church affairs”.

The Advisor to Patriarch Kirill noted that the actions of Latvian President Egils Levits reminded him of "the morals of the pre-war dictatorship of Kārlis Ulmanis". "In the 1920s, the authorities also exerted strong political and police pressure on the Orthodox Church of Latvia to exclude its ties with the Russian Orthodox Church and transfer it to the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople, following the example of neighbouring Estonia," the ROC cleric said.

He noted that in 1936 after the brutal murder of LOC head Archbishop John (Pommer), who was later canonized, Latvian authorities imposed a ban on convening a council for a year and a half, forcibly replaced almost the entire LOC Synod with "suitable" people and succeeded in changing the LOC Statute. "The period of dependence on Constantinople lasted less than five years," the Adviser to Patriarch Kirill stressed.

As reported, the President of Latvia submitted to the Seimas a bill on the separation of the LOC from the ROC.

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